Category: VIBE

💡 Should Consultants Use Vibe Coding in Business Central?

The rise of AI-powered coding assistants has sparked a fascinating shift in the consulting world. Functional consultants, traditionally focused on business processes and requirements, are now picking up coding tools and creating technical solutions themselves. This phenomenon, often called “vibe coding,” is reshaping team dynamics and project workflows. But is this evolution beneficial, or does it create new challenges?

What is Vibe Coding?

Vibe coding refers to the practice of using AI assistants like GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, or Claude to write code based on natural language descriptions and high-level understanding, rather than deep technical expertise. For functional consultants who understand business requirements intimately but lack extensive programming experience, these tools offer a tempting shortcut to implementation.

Why Functional Consultants Are Embracing Code ?

1. Faster Solution Delivery

Consultants can quickly generate AL code snippets, table extensions, or API wrappers using natural language prompts. What might take hours of manual coding can be drafted in minutes. This speed is particularly useful in sandbox or prototyping phases.

2. Empowered Functional Consultants

Functional consultants, who understand business processes but may lack deep AL knowledge, can experiment with configurations or customizations. This bridges the gap between functional understanding and technical execution, leading to better collaboration.

3. Lower Entry Barrier for New Developers

For junior technical consultants, Vibe Coding serves as a teaching companion. It can suggest syntax, help avoid errors, and guide them through standard Business Central development patterns.

4. Consistency and Standardization

AI-driven code suggestions can align to best practices and Microsoft guidelines (if the tool is properly trained), ensuring consistent code quality across teams.

⚠️ The Drawbacks and Risks

1. Uncontrolled Code Generation

AI tools can produce functional code that appears correct but lacks performance optimization or security validation. If used directly in production environments, this can lead to instability or compliance issues.

2. Reduced Technical Ownership

Overreliance on Vibe Coding may cause consultants to skip the learning curve of understanding Business Central’s architecture, data model, or event-driven patterns. This can erode long-term technical expertise.

3. Audit and Governance Challenges

AI-generated code might not have clear authorship or documentation. In regulated industries, this creates challenges during audits or code reviews, especially if traceability is required.

4. Data Security Concerns

If the tool transmits prompts or metadata to external servers for AI processing, it could expose sensitive business logic or schema information. This must be reviewed against company data protection policies.

👨💻 Impact on Technical Consultants

Vibe Coding doesn’t replace technical consultants — but it changes their role:

  • From coders to reviewers: Technical consultants become code reviewers and architects ensuring AI-generated outputs follow best practices.
  • From builders to enablers: They enable functional teams by setting up safe guardrails, templates, and review processes.
  • From developers to strategists: With repetitive tasks automated, technical consultants can focus on design, integration, and performance tuning.

In essence, Vibe Coding shifts technical consulting toward higher-value work, provided governance and quality checks exist.

Vibe Coding represents a powerful step toward modernizing Business Central development. It can improve efficiency, empower functional teams, and streamline solution delivery — but only when implemented with strong governance, code review, and data protection policies.

Rather than diminishing the role of technical consultants, Vibe Coding highlights their importance. They become the architects and quality guardians who ensure that AI-generated work aligns with business goals, technical standards, and long-term sustainability.

What do you think on this ?

Vibe Coding in AL Development for Business Central

As AL developers working with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, we often find ourselves caught between strict business requirements and the desire to write code that feels good, but with the latest Vibe Coding experience, we can see how developers interact with the platform. Instead of writing everything manually, Vibe Coding leverages AI-driven assistance, contextual suggestions, and natural language inputs to speed up solution building.

Vibe Coding isn’t just about writing code—it’s about creating a harmonious development experience that reduces cognitive load, enhances creativity, and produces more maintainable, scalable AL solutions. It combines best practices from agile development, clean code principles, and user experience design to create a holistic approach to Business Central customization.

What is Vibe Coding?

Vibe Coding is Microsoft’s new AI-assisted development experience embedded in Business Central AL development. Think of it as a “copilot for AL” — it understands your context, suggests code snippets, and helps you scaffold solutions quickly.

With Vibe Coding, you can:

  • Generate AL objects (tables, pages, code units) using natural language prompts.
  • Get inline suggestions for methods, triggers, and patterns.
  • Reduce boilerplate coding and focus on solution logic.
  • Learn AL development faster if you’re new to the ecosystem.

Getting Started

To enable Vibe Coding in AL development:

  1. Update your AL extension in Visual Studio Code to the latest version (available in VS Code Marketplace).
  2. Ensure your Business Central environment is updated to fully support Vibe Coding.
  3. Ensure Copilot features are enabled.
  4. Open your AL project and start coding — the AI suggestions will appear as ghost text or through the command palette.
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Example: Creating a Table with Vibe Coding

Traditionally, you create a table object like this:

table 50100 "Customer Ledger Extension"
{
   
    fields
    {
        field(1; "Customer No."; Code[20])
        {
            DataClassification = CustomerContent;
        }

        field(2; "Ledger Balance"; Decimal)
        {
            DataClassification = CustomerContent;
        }
    }
}

With Vibe Coding, you could simply type in natural language:

“Create a table for Customer Ledger with Customer No. and Ledger Balance fields.”

And Vibe Coding will generate the AL code for you, ready to refine.

Example: Extending a Page

Say you want to extend the Customer Card page to show the new field. Instead of looking up the object ID and syntax, you could type:

“Extend Customer Card to add Ledger Balance field from Customer Ledger Extension table.”

The tool generates the boilerplate page extension code, leaving you to adjust anything you requires.

The Future of AL Development

Vibe Coding works brilliantly for proof-of-concepts and small team innovations. The sweet spot? 👉 Start with Vibe for rapid progress, then formalize as the codebase matures.

For AppSource apps and enterprise BC implementations, structured development still wins. But for exploring new features or quick client customizations? Vibe Coding can be your secret weapon.

It’s not here to replace developers — it’s here to supercharge productivity and free us to focus on innovation. 🚀

Stay tuned for more as it is still in learning phase.